A centerpiece of President Obama’s strategy for defeating the Islamic State is mobilizing tribal fighters to join the Iraqi military in retaking Anbar province and others dominated by Sunnis. But new research shows that the jihadists have been working since 2009 to gut the very Sunni tribal leadership on which Obama’s rollback depends — making the U.S. campaign much more difficult.

U.S. strategists want to create a “national guard” version of the tribal militia known as the Awakening, which in 2007 and 2008 crushed al-Qaeda in Iraq, the predecessor of the Islamic State. But overlooked evidence shows that the jihadists have worked systematically to destroy the Awakening and assassinate tribal leaders who might challenge their rule.David Ignatius writes a twice-a-week foreign affairs column and contributes to the PostPartisan blog. View Archive

The jihadists’ long-running intimidation campaign against the Sunni tribes is one more sign that, as Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told me in September, the United States “underestimated” the Islamic State. Obama later told CBS’s “60 Minutes” that he shared Clapper’s critique.

Despite these mea culpas, U.S. planners may be making a similar mistake in assuming that the tribal networks can be rebuilt quickly. U.S. officials believe that Sunni support has been galvanized by the removal of polarizing Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite. That’s true, but fighting the jihadists will be a long uphill road.

Research documenting the Islamic State’s onslaught was compiled by Craig Whiteside, a former Army officer who fought in Iraq and now teaches at the Naval War College. By his count, at least 1,345 Awakening members have been killed in Iraq since 2009 by the Islamic State or its predecessor organizations. “In the Sunni areas where the Iraqi government had little control, it did not take long for the Islamic State to slowly and methodically eliminate resistance one person at a time,” he writes in a military blog called “War on the Rocks.”

Whiteside cites the example of the strategic town of Jurf al-Sakhar, south of Baghdad. Between 2009 and 2013, 46 Awakening members were killed in 27 different incidents there. The dead included four sheiks from the local Janabi tribe. Similar killings across Sunni areas of Iraq “were barely noticed by the Iraqi government or in the media,” Whiteside writes.

The jihadists documented their assassination campaign in a grisly video called “The Clanging of the Swords,” which Whiteside cites in his report. Watching the video, you see a series of drive-by assassinations, accompanied by heroic Islamic music, as Islamic State fighters gun down selected vehicles on the road or pedestrians on the streets. “The hungry lions chase their prey,” says an Arabic narrator, whose words are translated into English. It’s clear that the assassins’ intelligence is precise.

The Islamic fighters also targeted Iraqi police and army units in Sunni areas and Baghdad itself, starting more than two years ago. Islamic State communiques released in February 2013 claimed that in the second half of 2012, the group conducted 37 attacks in Baghdad and 43 assassinations in other areas of Iraq. U.S. analysts failed to see this gathering storm.

As its campaign against the Sunni tribal forces gained momentum in 2012 and 2013, the Islamic State began offering amnesty to Sunnis who had been part of the Awakening militia or the Iraqi security forces. The jihadist video shows scores of Sunnis experiencing “the joy of repentance” in an auditorium in Anbar. They recite a pledge of penitence together and then embrace masked jihadists on stage, one by one.

To swell its ranks further, the Islamic State staged a series of daring prison raids it called “Breaking the Walls.” Whiteside counts seven prison assaults between July 2012 and July 2013, culminating in a raid on Abu Ghraib prison that freed more than 500 senior Islamic State fighters, including one named Abu Wahib, who later became the group’s leader in Anbar. The importance of this prison-break campaign in the rapid build-out of Islamic State forces wasn’t understood by U.S. analysts.

U.S. officials argue that Sunni tribal leaders still want to work with American military advisers — all the more so after the jihadists’ brutal campaign of intimidation. As Sheik Zaydan al-Jibouri told me in Amman last month, “We want to create a strategic relationship with the Americans.”

But this time around, the tribal leaders must combat a deeply entrenched enemy. The Islamic State controls the ground; it has the intelligence; it has fierce, combat-hardened fighters. Obama is right to seek Sunni “boots on the ground” for the campaign against the jihadists, but he needs to explain better to the American public the roots of this conflict, and how difficult and protracted it will be.

Hamas, the head cutters of Gaza just decided that they want more Israeli rockets...

Four rockets fired in past 24 hours from enclave controlled by Hamas, army says without elaborating on test and type.

Rockets from Gaza now have the ability to reach Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other Israeli cities.

Hamas has stated that Israel and it's leaders are legitimate targets for assassination. Recent car attacks, stabbings and shootings of Israelis have been celebrated in the Gaza Strip with sweets and parades.

The most recent parade featured hundreds of Hamas members marching with meat cleavers and hatches.. In honor of the hacking up of 4 Rabbis while praying....

More than two months into its assault on Kobani, ISIS is still pouring fighters and resources into trying to capture the besieged Syrian Kurdish town, but the drive has been blunted.

Helped by more than 270 airstrikes from a U.S.-led coalition, the border town's unwavering Kurdish defenders are gaining momentum — a potentially bruising reversal for the extremists who only a few weeks ago appeared to be unstoppable.

The setback in Kobani is "a statement of [ISIS's] vulnerability," said David L. Phillips, an expert on Kurdish issues.

Retired marine general John Allen, the U.S. envoy for the international coalition fighting the the militants known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, said the group continues to mass around Kobani, creating more targets for the U.S. and its allies.

"[ISIS] has, in so many ways, impaled itself on Kobani," he said in an interview Wednesday in Ankara with the Turkish daily Milliyet.

A new report released by Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) called “How Walmart is Dodging Billions in Taxes: And Scheming to Avoid Billions More” describes Walmart’s prowess at avoiding taxes. The report also shows that Walmart has $21.4 billion stashed in offshore accounts and they don’t pay federal taxes on that money unless they bring it back to the States — and that’s a long shot.

Walmart also is trying to get their corporate taxes reduced and have have all taxation of foreign profits permanently eliminated. They have 74 lobbyists working on Capitol Hill and have spent $32.6 million lobbying on taxes over the past five years. They’ve also poured $6.1 million into politicians’ campaigns since 2009. Too bad they couldn’t spend that money on better wages for their employees and offer them more full-time jobs.

“When Walmart dodges billions in taxes the rest of us are forced to pick up the tab,” said Frank Clemente, executive director of Americans for ATF. “It means higher deficits, higher taxes on American families and small businesses, or slashed budgets for services we count on.”

Corporate tax reform will cost our country and the American taxpayers. Reducing the corporate tax rate to 25% will cost us a massive $1.3 trillion (with a “T”) over 10 years. Taxpayers already spend an estimated $6.2 billion a year subsidizing Walmart. How much more of Walmart’s “Low Prices” can Americans afford?

Barack Obama’s cavalcade trundled up the road and into Del Sol high school on Friday to bring his case for the most sweeping immigration reform in decades to a rally in Nevada’s gambling capital.

A bright desert sun illuminated two contrasting tableaux. From the school entrance snaked hundreds of people, mostly Latino, giddy and upbeat, come to hear and cheer a president who had decided to shield almost five million illegal immigrants from deportation by offering them temporary legal status and work permits. Across the street stood about two dozen protesters – white, indignant and angry – with megaphones. Placards amplified the message: “No amnesty!” “Deport them all!” “Oust Obama!”

Democrats from Washington who hitched a ride to the event on Air Force One could not resist smiling. It was a banner day for civil rights. But, more prosaically, the scenes on both sides of the highway sprinkled optimism on their chances of keeping the White House after Obama.

“The Latino vote is going to stay solid Democratic,” said Bill Richardson, a former New Mexico governor and one of the party’s leading Latino figures. “I think the party in deep trouble is the Republican party. They’re digging themselves in a very bad hole with Latino voters for 2016.”

Dolores Huerta, a veteran and well-known labour activist, agreed. “I think they can win Congress, but not the presidency. There are 50,000 Latino kids that turn 18 every month – not just on the west coast or in the south-west; you’re talking about Georgia, North Carolina, Maryland.”

Mitt Romney sabotaged his 2012 campaign when he urged undocumented people to “self-deport”. It alienated Latinos, the fastest-growing group of voters. The GOP’s official postmortem made a blunt conclusion: “If Hispanics think that we do not want them here, they will close their ears to our policies.”

In honor of the 4 terrorists that have murdered Rabbis, babies and women in Israel that were killed while doing their duty, Jordan gave a moment of silence to praise the dead killers....

Israel has bulldozed the family homes of the 4, raising condemnation from France, America, Germany and of course quirk.

Well, at least I appear to be in good company.

At the rear end of the park is a wall or divider maybe six or seven feet high and about twice that wide. You go behind it, and you see a plain tombstone. It holds the body of Baruch Goldstein, who in 1994 walked into the Mosque of Ibrahim just down the road, wearing his army uniform and carrying a machine gun, and murdered 29 Muslims and wounded another 125 before being overwhelmed and killed by worshippers his bullets had missed. He had lived in Qiryat Arba.

The inscription says in part: “The revered Dr. Baruch Kapel Goldstein… Son of Israel. He gave his soul for the sake of the people of Israel, The Torah, and the Land. His hands are clean and his heart good… He was assassinated for the Sanctity of God.” If you remember the end of Schindler’s List, you’ll recall that the now-elderly Jews saved by Oskar Schindler filed past his tombstone and placed small stones on it, signs of mourning and respect. When I visited Goldstein’s grave, about 40 small stones rested on the slab. Mourning and respect.

The Lobby gets in high dudgeon when I suggest the deaths in Jerusalem are a nit when compared to the annual death count in a city like Detroit. However, all I was doing was pointing out that Israel's situation is like that of Detroit or other large cities, it is persistent. As is painfully appropriate in what is called the 'holy land', the conflict there is eternal. It's been going on there for more than 6 decades and it will continue on for six more. It is persistent and in the grand scheme of things small-scale like an ongoing fight between the Crips and the Bloods or between 2 Mexican cartels (although a heck of a lot of more lives are lost in the latter).

This is all about land and who controls it. We know that this has always been the Zionist dream, to control the land from the river to the see. We see it in the words they spoke, in the words they speak, in the land policies they established, past and present.

WiO talks about forcing the Palestinians out altogether. Too late. That might have been a viable option early on but it no longer is. The world wouldn't stand for it.

The Israelis and the Palestinians got themselves into this situation and they won't be getting themselves out anytime soon. The killings on both sides will continue and all anyone not involved will be able to do is shake their head the same as they do when they read in the Detroit News that another child was killed in a drive by shooting.

Please spare me the posting of endless posts about attacks on Jews by Palestinians. I will be forced to post similar articles showing Jewish assaults on Palestinians.

APARTHEID AND OCCUPATIONMore than 5 million Palestinians are denied equal rights by the state of Israel under a system of apartheid, a deliberate policy of racial or ethnic segregation.

Under Israeli military occupation, millions of Palestinians live in conditions which closely resemble the apartheid system that existed in South Africa: • No right of free speech, assembly or movement • Arrest and imprisonment without charge or trial • Torture • House searches without warrant • Assassination, extra-judicial murder • No right to vote for the Israeli government (even though it controls their lives)Israel controls all Palestinian borders, all imports and exports, and all movement between towns and cities. THE GAZA STRIP, still surrounded, besieged and controlled by Israel, has been sealed off and effectively turned into the world’s largest open-air prison.

WHAT IS ISRAELI APARTHEID? Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter was the first prominent figure in this country to apply the term apartheid to Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories—East Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank. Israel’s apartheid system, however, also affects Palestinian Arabs who make up 20 percent of the population within Israel itself. Apartheid is a central feature of the Zionist state that proclaims it is exclusively for Jews.

“Israel’s version of apartheid is more sophisticated than the South African version. South African apartheid was rudimentary, petty, primitive — literally black and white, clear separation, no rights.

Israel’s apartheid is more hidden with the deceptive image of ‘democracy.’ Palestinian citizens of Israel have the right to vote. However, in every other area they are discriminated against by law and policy.”

The President has the authority under the 14SEP2001 AUMF to do as he pleases in Afghanistan and against ISIS.If the President were to determine that Assad was complicit in the 11SEP2001 raid on the US, he could use military action against him, without further Congressional approval, doubt that happens.

So until something 'new' happens, we are where we are.Not at war with Syria, not at war with Assad, just at war in Syria, assisting the forces allied with Assad, in Kobane.

Here's is your assignment for today, rat. Read and memorize, it can only help you.

A recent episode of The Big Bang Theory shows Sheldon, Leonard, Raj, and Howard watching Back to the Future, Part II and discussing the appropriate tense to use when talking about something that happened in an alternate past timeline...

Howard: Wait, hold on. Pause.

Howard: Something doesn’t make sense. Look. In 2015 Biff steals the Sports Almanac and takes the time machine back to 1955 to give it to his younger self. But as soon as he does that he changes the future, so the 2015 he returns to would be a different 2015. Not the 2015 that Marty and Doc were in.

Leonard: This is Hot Tub Time Machine all over again. Look. If future Biff goes back to 2015 right after he gives young Biff the Almanac, he could get back to the 2015 with Marty and Doc in it. Because it wasn’t until his 21st birthday that 1955 Biff placed his first bet.

Sheldon: But whoa, whoa. Is placed right?

Leonard: What do you mean?

Sheldon: Is placed the right tense for something that would’ve happened in the future of a past that was affected by something from the future?

Leonard: [thinks] Had will have placed?

Sheldon: That’s my boy.

Leonard: OK. So, it wasn’t until his 21st birthday that Biff had will have placed his first bet and made his millions. That’s when he alters the timeline.Sheldon: But he had will haven’t placed it.

Howard: What?

Sheldon: Unlike Hot Tub Time Machine, this couldn’t be more simple. [laugh track] When Biff gets the Almanac in 1955, the alternate future he creates isn’t the one in which Marty and Doc Brown ever used the time machine to travel to 2015. Therefore, in the new timeline, Marty and Doc never brought the time machine.

Leonard: Wait, wait, wait. Is brought right?

Sheldon: [thinks] Marty and Doc never had have had brought?

Leonard: I don’t know, you did it to me.

Sheldon: I’m going with it. Marty and Doc never had have had brought the time machine to 2015. That means 2015 Biff could also not had have had brought the Almanac to 1955 Biff. Therefore, the timeline in which 1955 Biff gets the Almanac is also the timeline in which 1955 Biff never gets the Almanac and not just never gets: never have, never hasn’t, never had have hasn’t.

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting scoop about how American personnel are helping Mexico's military catch drug suspects—they're disguising themselves as Mexican marines and taking part in armed raids. It's generally members of the US Marshals Service doing so, but FBI and DEA agents sometimes tag along, too. The secret missions happen about four times a year. During one such raid in July, an American was shot and wounded while walking with Mexican marines in Sinaloa state, writes Devlin Barrett in what appears to be the first public accounting of the incident.

It's not entirely clear exactly which officials in which country have signed off on the strategy, but one of them appears to be Marshals Service chief Stacia Hylton. She sent out an email after the July firefight to let people know that the wounded American was safely back in the US and recuperating, reports the Journal. The Marshals Service is part of the Justice Department, no stranger to risks in Mexico thanks to the botched Fast and Furious program.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said on Sunday that the Obama administration must do more in the Middle East to combat the Islamic militants who are gaining ground in Iraq, even amid U.S.-led airstrikes in the country.

He said the United States should be sending targeted special forces troops and forward air controllers to supplement those strikes against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), stopping short of advocating for putting American combat battalions there.

“There has to be a fundamental re-evaluation of what we're doing because we are not — we are not ‘degrading and ultimately destroying ISIS,’ ” McCain told CNN’s Candy Crowley on “State of the Union,” borrowing a phrase President Obama used when the president outlined the plan of attack against the group.

“They're winning and we're not,” McCain said of ISIS.

He also moved to provide arms to both Kurdish fighters known as the Peshmerga, who McCain says are using “old weapons that are Russian vintage against ISIS” as well as the Free Syrian Army, a group of moderate rebels that is battling intensifying attacks from Syrian President Bashar Assad.

“You have to go after ISIS and Bashar al Assad at the same time or you will not succeed,” McCain said.

Since ISIS has also been at odds with Assad, the airstrikes to weaken the terror group have emboldened the Syrian leader, the rebel group says.

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters on Friday that the Pentagon plans to send a team to Turkey next week to figure out how to train and equip an effective rebel force in Syria.

A $500 million program outlined by the White House to train and arm 5,000 Free Syrian Army fighters has not yet begun.

McCain on Sunday said that the United States “can't afford to let this continue.”

“The stronger ISIS gets, the greater the threat to the United States of America. That's what we have to understand and that's why tough decisions have to be made and not gradually,” he said. “We have to completely revamp our strategy, which clearly is not succeeding.”

America Cannot Kill Its Way Out of the ISIS WarThis is not a simple "we win, they lose" scenario.

Zenon Evans | October 30, 2014

The U.S. is a long way from resolving "Operation Inherent Resolve", our new and undeclared war in Iraq and Syria. President Barack Obama says it's "going to be a long-term campaign. There are not quick fixes involved. … As with any military effort, there will be days of progress and there are going to be periods of setback." We're only four months into what the president suggests could be a three-year fight to "degrade and destroy" the Islamic State (ISIS).RELATED ARTICLES

The looming question is, how does war with a totalitarian jihadist group actually end successfully, rather than morph from one military campaign into another ad infinitum? It's going to take more than just bullets and bombs. And it's not going to be a simple "we win, they lose" scenario.

ISIS does have weak points militarily. If allied forces can free cities like Mosul or Kobane, they'll strike a serious morale blow that could dissuade future recruits. America is also already bombing oil refineries, a major revenue stream, and there's a good chance ISIS doesn't use banks, so they have millions, if not billions, in cash that's vulnerable for targeting.

Whether the American-led coalition can actually pull off a military victory is yet to be seen. But our airstrikes aren't as effective as hoped, the majority of American troops want nothing to do with this war, our humanitarian aid and weapons have fallen into ISIS's hands, and our relatively small coalition is divided by rivalries and historical tensions.

"The kinetic part of this—drone strikes, airstrikes, Special Forces raids—that is just a tactical and operational tool to constrict the threat group's mobility," explains Sebastian Gorka, Major General Horner Chair at the Marine Corps University and Adjunct Professor at the Institute on World Politics.

A military success, however, does not guarantee the prevention of bigger, badder groups in the future. After all, we battled back Al Qaeda and now have ISIS, its ugliest off-shoot, on our hands. According to a 2008 Rand Corporation study, when terrorist groups do actually cease to exist, "nearly 50 percent of the time [since 1968], groups ended by negotiating a settlement with the government; 25 percent of the time, they achieved victory; and 19 percent of the time, military forces defeated them." And, "big groups of more than 10,000 members have been victorious more than 25 percent of the time."

Christopher Harmon of the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies has also looked at historical trends, and his "How Terrorist Groups End" lays out five potential courses: the use of force, which the U.S. has been hesitant to commit in the current case; a good grand strategy, which requires even greater commitment; decapitation of leadership, which is "exceedingly difficult to do"; the terrorist group entering the political process in the occupied nations; or the group winning state power.

So, is it possible to speak diplomatically with an organization that has a stated goal of establishing a religious totalitarian state stretching from the western coast of Spain deep into central Asia?

ISIS is not a rag-tag outfit composed solely of crazies. It's a well-organized, mafia-esque, and business-savvy enterprise. In command are some of the high-ranking Sunni members of the Saddam Hussein regime. Many were driven there by the corrupt, post-war, American-approved Maliki administration, which ousted highly-skilled Sunnis from Iraq's military and instituted "unabashedly Shiite-first policies." Barely half of Sunnis had faith in their government even a year before ISIS showed up.

"Let's get really Machiavellian," says Edward Turzanski of the Foreign Policy Research Center. "And let's say they're less interested in some sort of Islamist ideal than they are in carving out their own sphere of influence" and "protecting Sunni Arabs in Iraq." This could come in the form of Harmon's fifth option, which has previously occurred fully in the case of Bolshevik Russia and, to lesser degrees, with Hamas in Palestine and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Or it could resemble Harmon's fourth scenario, as with the Irish Republican Army (IRA), which abandoned terrorist activity and now has former militants in office.

"As a matter of historical fact, insurgencies end by negotiations," says Christopher Preble of the Cato Institute. So who would be equipped to conduct such talks?

Although the U.S. is the head of the current anti-ISIS coalition, it would be a domestic political impossibility for America to take the lead in negotiations. Our mythos is that America wins wars cleanly without concessions, and President Barack Obama is personally unlikely to backtrack on his absolutist rhetoric about defeating ISIS without talks.

ISIS is "challenging the authority of established sovereign states," and as such, "any negotiations should be between the [Iraqi, Syrian, and Kurdish regional] governments and the insurgents," says Preble. Turkey may also be in a willing position to participate in negotiations, since it has already made trade-offs with ISIS and the group is now at Turkey's border.

It's possible, however, that talks couldn't be conducted at all. Some analysts contend that the West should not overlook the seriousness of ISIS's commitment to fighting tooth and nail for a caliphate. Harmon believes that diplomacy would be very difficult.

State DeptState DeptGorka, citing ISIS's immense brutality and conviction that this is "the final war before the judgment day," says it would be impossible to get them to compromise. But he also notes that "we cannot kill our way out of this war" or we'll be at it for centuries. Rather, America's battle with ISIS, or in "any war against a totalitarian organization … will only come when you have adequately undermined and delegitimized the ideology of the organization. You have to destroy the brand."

Gorka suggests that the U.S. needs an analog to Reagan's Berlin Wall speech, in which the president shamed the communists, "blew their credibility," and made them "uncool."

The State Department is trying something of that sort with a social media campaign called "Look Again, Turn Away." It sends the right messages: ISIS primarily targets other Muslims, its fighters are deserters, and they do not really practice Islam or have real authority over Islamic beliefs.

ISISISISBut, again, the U.S. may not be the best equipped to handle this front. Scott Stewart, vice president of tactical analysis at the global intelligence firmStratfor, says, "America is seen as an outsider and a crusader. It really doesn't have any entre into that battlefield. Quite frankly, the stuff the State Department is doing is almost goofy."

One of ISIS's greatest strengths is its social media propaganda campaign, which makes the organization appear fearsome and enticing, whereas the State Department's work looks poorly Photoshopped. Best suited to break ISIS's grip on ideas, suggests Stewart, will be prestigious religious authorities at Saudi Arabia's Council of Senior Scholars and Egypt's Al Azhar University. "This is a battle for the soul of Islam, it's something that has to be battled between Muslims themselves," Stewart says.

None of these are short-term or singularly effective strategies—it's much harder to end a war than to start one. But they are important strategies that the American-led coalition must consider if the threat of totalitarian Jihadism is to be eliminated and the U.S. is to actually end its long counter-terror campaigns in the Middle East.

ISIS as M-Corporation: Why taking down Baghdadi is Unlikely to Take Down ISIS

Running a decentralized organization didn’t insulate the group’s chief executive, at least not for long. By April 2010 the average tenure for the top boss was about 39 months, with both men who had held the post killed in U.S. airstrikes. When the group announced its new chief in May 2010, it issued only his Arabic nom de guerre, maintaining his anonymity: Abu Bakr ­al-Baghdadi “al-Qurashi.” His purported lineage made him religious royalty. The use of “al-Qurashi” signified he was descended from the Quraysh tribe, into which the Prophet Muhammad was born during the sixth century. He was later identified as Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri al-Samarrai, born in Samarra in 1971.

In a biography made to appear as if it were written on a yellowing, ancient scroll, the group claims its leader earned a doctorate in Islamic studies and served as a prominent cleric. His rivals have disputed those credentials. What’s undisputed is his arrest on suspicion of supporting terrorism, following the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He was imprisoned at Camp Bucca, a U.S. detention center. While there, al-Baghdadi would meet the fiercest enemies of the U.S. occupation and its new Iraqi government, including both religious zealots and secular military commanders who had served under Saddam Hussein in the Ba’ath Party. ­Although accounts conflict, it appears that, after his release, a small jihadi group al-Baghdadi led pledged ­allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq, bringing him into its management ranks via a merger.

It’s difficult to know how much al-Baghdadi tweaked the ­organization’s management model after taking over in May 2010. But Islamic State’s own publicly issued reports and statements show it remains structured in the M-form, with 18 semi­autonomous provincial divisions drawn across Iraq and Syria. Even for major military campaigns, top leaders may declare the goals, but the precise timing, tactics, and resources used are likely left in the hands of local commanders, says Michael Knights, a military analyst and fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy specializing in Iraq. ..

>>>Ferguson, Missouri (CNN) -- Anticipating a grand jury decision at any moment, more businesses boarded up their doors and windows and residents hunkered down in their homes on two of Ferguson's main roads.

It's a city in waiting.

The grand jury did not reach a decision Friday and it was unclear when it would reconvene, federal and local law enforcement officials told CNN Saturday.<<<

November 22, 2014Poll reveals public thinks there should be no Ferguson indictment and expects violent reactionBy Thomas Lifson

It is not just conservatives who are on to the race grievance industry’s exploitation of the death of Michael Brown. A vast majority realize what is going on.

Valerie Richardson reports in the Washington Times:

Only 1 in 4 Americans believe that white police officer Darren Wilson should be charged with murder by the grand jury in the shooting death in of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown, according to a poll released Friday.

With the St. Louis County grand jury expected to render its verdict at any time, the Rasmussen Reports poll found that only 23 percent of those surveyed said Mr. Wilson should be indicted for the Aug. 9 murder of Mr. Brown, whose death touched off riots in Ferguson, Missouri.

Another 39 percent of Americans said that Mr. Wilson acted in self-defense, up from 26 percent when the same question was asked in a mid-August poll. Another 38 percent are undecided, compared with 51 percent who were undecided three months ago. (snip)

The vast majority — 81 percent — said they expect to see violent protests if the grand jury does not indict the officer on murder charges, while just 10 percent said such a reaction was not likely.

The public increasingly understands, despite the efforts of Eric Holder, Al Sharpton, and the media, that people with a financial or political interest in racial animosity are forming what amounts to a lynch mob.

The US War Against ISIS Is Barely Degrading, Certainly Not Destroying The Militants

By Erin Banco@ErinBancoe.banco@ibtimes.com on October 24 2014

>>>Witnesses on the ground in Kobani told International Business Times that ISIS had been pushed back from the center of the city, but that the fighting was still raging on the outskirts. Meanwhile, ISIS is making gains in other parts of Syria and in Baghdad. According to the Syrian Observatory, ISIS fighters seized Tal Shaer, a town just west of Kobani, this week. And in Baghdad, the Sunni militant group has claimed responsibility for several car and suicide bomb attacks that have killed dozens of people in the last two weeks.

The uptick in ISIS attacks since June in Iraq has not only caused hundreds of civilian deaths, but has also infiltrated the psyche of the Iraqi people, especially those living in the capital, Noof Assi, a woman from Baghdad, told the International Business Times.

At the beginning of the ISIS campaign, "Baghdad looked like a ghost city," Assi said. "People were staying at home or fleeing, saving food and fuel."

Now, she said, people in Baghdad are used to the ISIS insurgency. Discussions in shops, cafes and restaurants have shifted. No longer are Iraqis talking about the destruction that ISIS is inflicting on the country. Now, people are talking about how many people are beginning to support the militant group.

"There are people talking about people of Mosul," she said of the big northern city. "Some people are saying that they betrayed Iraq and welcomed ISIS."

The State Department and White House have both confirmed that part of the U.S. strategy to fight ISIS is to undercut its propaganda and recruitment, especially on social media. So far, though, the U.S. has not launched a successful countercampaign.<<<

They offended poor, little quirk's sensibilities so I quit posting them

Perhaps, I have forgotten that particular argument. I thought out last one was about your belief that the US air campaign was so precise and the pilots so surgical that there had been no civilian casualties resulting from that air campaign.

Or perhaps, it had to do with something like this,

The Score, now, is probably around 5,000 or 6,000 to 0.

:o)

At any rate, back to the subject at had. Obama (and his generals) have said this 'war' will take years. In a clear moment for him, he also said there will be clear wins as well as setbacks along the way. What I did make fun of in the past was not your posting of major victories by the coalition or the allies but your posting of stories were six Toyotas were taken out and 4 other military vehicles destroyed and from that 'assuming' that represented 100 dead ISIS fighters and a major victory for our side.

The fact is,

In Iraq, we took out the Iraqi army and captured Hussein within 2 months. Then we remained for 8 years and now we are back.

In Afghanistan, we drove OBL out of the country and defeated the Taliban in 6 months. We are still there and likely to be engaged in combat missions for the foreseeable future.

In Libya, using basically the same tactics we are currently using, we achieved regime change in 6 months.

All victories, or so some have said. However, if those are what victory looks like, I guess I would rather stay home.

All that being said, in the future, I will try not to rain on your parade.

FERGUSON Mo (Reuters) - Hundreds of civil rights lawyers from across America are descending on Ferguson, Missouri as police and protesters prepare for a grand jury decision on whether to charge the officer who killed an unarmed black teenager in August.

The attorneys are arriving in Ferguson as talks between protest groups and police have stalled over a refusal by officials to rule out the use of riot gear, tear gas and militarized equipment if demonstrations turn violent should a grand jury decide not to indict police officer Darren Wilson, protest leaders say.

Wilson, who is white, shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown in a Ferguson street on August 9. The death sparked weeks of sometimes violent protests, and hundreds of arrests. The grand jury decision on whether to indict Wilson is imminent and police fear another wave of violence if he is not charged. Tensions in Ferguson and the St. Louis area are running high.

The lawyers, some from as far afield as New York and California, have responded to calls from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and protest groups in Ferguson to monitor police behavior in the wake of the grand jury decision. They will also take an aggressive legal posture, the attorneys said, filing quick fire lawsuits to fight potentially shoddy jail conditions, onerous bail bonds and civil rights abuses.

"We will be using the sword as well as the shield," said Justin Hansford, a St. Louis University law professor who is part of the legal team. "We have lawyers from Washington, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. They won't just be observing. They will be filing lawsuits."

Magnificent Ronald and the Founding Fathers of al Qaeda

“These gentlemen are the moral equivalents of America’s founding fathers.” — Ronald Reagan while introducing the Mujahideen leaders to media on the White house lawns (1985). During Reagan’s 8 years in power, the CIA secretly sent billions of dollars of military aid to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in a US-supported jihad against the Soviet Union. We repeated the insanity with ISIS against Syria.